Sparrows are interactive birds that light up when someone whistles in the vicinity.

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Sparrows are interactive birds, attached to the first floor windowpanes of residential houses. They light up in a random mix of colours when someone whistles in the vicinity, adding a ludic dimension to the neighborhood, improving the neighborhood atmosphere through an interactive poetic layer. A Sparrow houses a range of sensors, including sound, light, movement and CO2, as well as a 3G enabled SIM card.

Sparrows are part of a city game ZWERM, which aims to improve neighborhood cohesion and ultimately neighborhood participation, through a network of urban, ludic interventions. Within the game, each Sparrow whistle adds points to the neighborhoods’ score in which the object was located. Players are able to consult a map with the locations and the status of the Sparrows on the ZWERM website.

ZWERM partners: iMinds, Alcatel-Lucent, City of Ghent. With collaboration of MAD-faculty and Fab Lab Genk.
The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 under grant agreements n°270971: SmartIP.

MAP-it participatory mapping: publication and manual with a hands-on toolkit.

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MAP-it is a tool for participatory cartography and conversation. It is an open and extendible set of stickers that allows a group of people to make their thoughts explicit about a project, idea, ... in the form of a map. The visual character of mapping allows participants from different backgrounds, who may speak different languages, to discuss and create on equal grounds. MAP-it not only encourages to share positive experiences, but also stimulates critique and debate. This publication will provide the reader with an insight in the tool and the broader field of mapping and methods in participatory design, as well as offer a practical guide and a kit to organise a MAP-it session. People can download and contribute to MAP-it at www.map-it.be.

Part 2 of the book, the MAP-it Manual is available for download below. It allows you to develop and moderate MAP-it workshops. It's distributed under a Creative Commons non-commercial share alike license.

This publication is the result of a 3 year artistic research study, supported by OPAK (LUCA school of arts | KU Leuven)
MAP-it is a project of Social Spaces at the MAD-faculty

MAP-it is a hands-on tool used to plan, analyse and reconstruct past and future projects and spaces, which has been used in many participatory urban design projects.

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MAP-it is a hands-on tool used to plan, analyse and reconstruct past and future projects and spaces. It is a method to visualise a process in space and time, in a low-tech, open and flexible manner. It can be used in various situations, such as a brainstorm, debriefing, interview. MAP-it is an open tool, with all elements (scenario, stickers, manual) freely available, so you can experiment and organise a session yourself. However if you would like us to collaborate or assist with your participatory mapping project, you can contact me or Social Spaces.